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...thanks to LCROSS, the verdict is finally in. Not only does water exist on the moon, but it has been uncovered by the bucketful - about 24 gallons' worth. It was the intentional crash of the mission - in two separate stages - on Oct. 9 that made the discovery possible. The first piece of LCROSS slammed into the floor of a crater called Cabeus, some 60 miles from the moon's south pole, excavating a hole more than 60 ft. across and sending up a plume of pulverized material about 6 miles wide. Then, about four minutes later, the second part...
...they would be able see the impact through large amateur telescopes. Reporters were frustrated because, despite the drama, no actual information was available right away. It took a month of what Colaprete calls 28-hour days to extract the major news that there is, in fact, water on the moon...
...moon's ice might have come from comet impacts, which would date it back to the earliest days of our solar system; that ice would hold a record of the cosmic chemistry of those formative times. But the ice could have also been formed by particles streaming from the sun, which gradually combined with lunar minerals to form water, then ice. Or it might have come from Earth, perhaps in the gigantic collision that created the moon in the first place. Whatever its origins, says Delory, the prospect of studying it is really exciting...
...addition to its historical significance, water on the moon holds prospects for the future. If humans are ever going to establish a long-term presence on the moon, they will need water to drink, and tapping a local supply would be a lot more convenient than lugging it from Earth. Beyond that, water can be split into hydrogen and oxygen - the former makes pretty good rocket fuel, and the latter is useful for breathing...
Read "Is There Life on Saturn's Moon...